<html><head></head><body><div style="font-family: Verdana;font-size: 12.0px;"><div>Hello, Godfrey, and thank you for an interesting and in parts passionate post. I agree with what you say about the intention of 'laning' the internet, and I too think it is a dredful idea. The internet is something 'they' would never had allowed us to have in the first place had they known what it was capable of doing, and it is quite likely, short of holocaust scenarios, impossible to actually shut the thing down.</div>
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<div>What they are trying -- and to my mind succeeding to do is to take over the internet entirely -- you only need to watch some of the political channels on YouTube to discover just how far control has been wrest away from us and into the hands of mega-corporations.</div>
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<div>We all know this isn't what we want, but it is happening and it is going to get worse; in some ways it reminds me of an old 'Steptoe and Son' episode in which the two, after yet another of their fights, had divided their house into two, with rules as to TV access. As old man Steptoe so rightly said, when Harold told him that the law of contract was on his side, 'Well, the knobs are on my side!'</div>
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<div>Like it or not -- and I really don't, believe me -- appeals, calls for the protection of freedoms and so on will all have no effect on what 'they' want. In short, we are b*gg*r*d, but thanks for caring and wanting to do the decent thing. You are one of the good guys; sadly, for every one of you, there are ten of them -- and the knobs are on their side.</div>
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<div>Peace.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Bob<br/>
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<div class="signature"><span style="color:#008000;">Foolproof systems don't take into account the ingenuity of fools.<br/>
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- Gene Brown</span></div>
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<div style="margin:0 0 10px 0;"><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, July 14, 2016 at 4:07 PM<br/>
<b>From:</b> "Godfrey Nix via Nottingham" <nottingham@mailman.lug.org.uk><br/>
<b>To:</b> "Jason Irwin" <jasonirwin73@gmail.com>, "Notts GNU/Linux Users Group" <nottingham@mailman.lug.org.uk><br/>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Nottingham] Is it time to save the Internet in Europe?</div>
<div name="quoted-content">Not in the news, but it has appeared on campaigning sites like AVAAZ,<br/>
see this extract from email I received.<br/>
<br/>
Regards,<br/>
Godfrey<br/>
---------<br/>
<br/>
Last week a gang of multinationals including Deutsche Telekom, Nokia,<br/>
and Vodafone launched a desperate effort to kill the free and open<br/>
Internet we all rely on.<br/>
<br/>
If they succeed, they will create ‘fast lanes’ for the big Internet<br/>
companies who can pay, while condemning independent media, start-ups,<br/>
and citizen movements like Avaaz to a 'slow lane'. But if an<br/>
unprecedented number of us act in the next few days, we can meet this<br/>
new attack and help secure strong Internet protections in Europe.<br/>
<br/>
A public comment period is running right now -- let's flood it with<br/>
hundreds of thousands of messages calling on EU regulators to close all<br/>
loopholes that threaten to ruin the promise of a democratic, free<br/>
Internet. Send a message now and tell everyone -- we have just days<br/>
left:<br/>
<br/>
<a href="https://secure.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet_eu_loc_2016/?tSdaccb" target="_blank">https://secure.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet_eu_loc_2016/?tSdaccb</a><br/>
<br/>
The principle of Net Neutrality is what makes the Internet unique and<br/>
empowering -- the recognition that everyone, from the richest<br/>
corporations to any ordinary citizen, should be free to access all<br/>
content and applications equally. Our tenacious campaigning over the<br/>
last years has helped translate this principle into strong regulations<br/>
in the US, India, and Brazil.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
On Thu, 2016-07-14 at 09:15 +0100, Jason Irwin via Nottingham wrote:<br/>
> I have not seen or heard a thing about this in the news.<br/>
><br/>
> <a href="https://savetheinternet.eu/en/" target="_blank">https://savetheinternet.eu/en/</a><br/>
><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
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